four hundred villages and hamlets in the Upper Cevennes,--assuring de
Villars with the confidence of a man who had studied the matter
profoundly, that they should all have been demolished without exception,
and all the peasants killed to the last man.

So it came to pass that M. de Villars arrived at Beaucaire placed like
Don Juan between the spirits of good and evil, the one advising clemency
and the other murder. M. de Villars not being able to make up his mind,
on reaching Nimes, d'Aygaliers assembled the principal Protestants of the
town, told them of his plan, showing them its practicability, so that
also joined in the good work, and drew up a document in which they asked
the marechal to allow them to take up arms and march against the rebels,
as they were determined either to bring them back into the good way by
force of example or to fight them as a proof of their loyalty.

This petition, which was signed by several nobles and by almost all the
lawyers and merchants of the city of Nimes, was presented to M. de
Villars on Tuesday, 22nd April, 1704, by M. de Albenas, at the head of
seven or eight hundred persons of the Reformed religion. M. de Villars
received the request kindly, thanked its bearer and those who accompanied
him, assuring them that he had no doubt of the sincerity of their
professions, and that if he were in want of help he would have recourse
to them with as much confidence as if they were old Catholics. He hoped,
however, to win the rebels back by mildness, and he begged them to second
his efforts in this direction by spreading abroad the fact that an
amnesty was offered to all those who would lay down arms and return to
their houses within a week. The very next day but one, M. de Villars set
out from Nimes to visit all the principal towns, in order to make himself
acquainted with men, things, and places.